Push to Shove
by Nate Blodau
Summary: Couldn't she see that she was only protecting her, that she was doing this because she loved her? Couldn't Snowfur love her the way she loved Thistleclaw? [Sibling incest tw]


Who does he even think he is, talking to her like that?

That's Bluepaw's first thought when Thistlepaw and Snowpaw leave the apprentices' den together. His head is tilted and his ears are angled directly at Snowpaw's face, and his eyes are half-lidded and squinty, and a goofy grin spreads across his face as she talks. He's drinking in her words like a flower after a long summer heat, and Bluepaw feels an angry fire building in her chest.

It's when he playfully nudges her shoulder with his paw that Bluepaw loses it. "Hey!" she says, trotting across the clearing with her tail lashing in her wake. She shoves herself between the two apprentices, ignoring Snowpaw's protests, and glares at Thistlepaw. His eyes are wide with confusion at first, and then he glares back.

"What are you doing?" he says.

"Don't push my sister," she retorts, growling.

"He was just playing, Bluepaw, he barely touched me!" Snowpaw says, her ears back. She looks horribly embarrassed, and Bluepaw feels flustered. She was protecting her! Why was she acting like this?

"I'd never hurt Snowpaw," Thistlepaw says. "Not in a thousand seasons. So maybe you should go and leave us alone."

Bluepaw growls and nudges Snowpaw away. "Come on, Snowpaw, let's go hunting."

"But-!"

With another shove with her head, Snowpaw backs off, staring at Thistlepaw over Bluepaw's shoulders.

–

"He is handsome though, isn't he?" Snowfur says to Bluefur as they share tongues. "And he's very loyal to ThunderClan."

Bluefur just gives her a look. "He tried to get Tigerpaw to murder a kittypet."

"He didn't want Tigerpaw to kill him, for StarClan's sake!" Snowfur says with an angry huff and a lash of her tail. "How many times have we been over this?"

"You weren't there!" Bluefur replies, standing up and lashing her tail. "Tigerpaw nearly killed that kit, a three-moon-old! And Thistleclaw encouraged it! How can you be so blind to how – how-"

"Why is it," Snowfur growls, rising to her own paws and meeting her sister nose to nose as her tail twitches, "that without fail, every time I mention Thiseclaw, you have to say something cruel about him? Can't you just for once say something nice?"

"There's nothing nice about him! There never has been! He's always been an awful, selfish, rude-"

"He _loves_ me, Bluefur!" Snowfur replies, stamping a forepaw on the ground. "And I love him. And – and I just want you to be _happy_ for me, for once in your life!"

The words are enough to send Bluefur reeling. She feels like she's been hit by a monster. "I … What?"

"We're mates, Bluefur," Snowfur says quietly. "I love him and he loves me. And everyone else in ThunderClan is happy for us. Happy that we're happy together. Except for you. You're the only one who says anything bad. Whatever grief you have with Thistleclaw, can't you put it aside just once to be happy that I'm with someone who loves me and our kits?"

"Y-your – your k- k-"

"We're expecting a litter, yes. Featherwhisker says it's probably a small one, one or two at most." Snowfur blinks repeatedly. "And I haven't told you until now because every time I tried you always just told me how terrible Thistleclaw was. How could I ever tell you something like this if all I could think about was how you would make me chew vervain?"

Vervain, the kit-killing plant. No medicine cat kept it in their stores, though they always knew where it grew.

"That's – no, no, I would never ask you to-"

"Oh my StarClan, Bluefur, that's not the _point_." Snowfur growls. "Forget it. Just. Forget everything. You never listen to me anyway."

She gets up and leaves, leaving her half-eaten thrush with its heart dangling from its ribs. Bluefur falls to her haunches.

She'd been wrong. She'd been wrong all this time.

Snowfur loved Thistelcaw. She chose him. No matter what Bluefur would say, no matter what she would do, she would never be as important to Snowfur as Thistleclaw as to her.

She would never be to Snowfur what Thistleclaw was.

"I just," Bluefur whispers under her breath. "I just wanted you to love me the way you love him."


End file.
